Italy: Manning the Lifeboats

The founders of modern Italy established a
strong central government 100 years ago to unify a collection of
hopelessly disparate cities, petty principalities, provinces and
kingdoms. Mussolini centralized further to solidify Fascist power, and
since World War II, the government has been unable to break the habit
of taking everything upon itself. As a result, its power is so
centralized that Rome rules on everything down to road repairs and
hunting licenses, delegating authority through weak provincial
governments and even providing funds for local government.